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Topic: To Cook the Sauce or Not (Read 7126 times)

Interesting question concerning cooking the sauce but of course the only answer can come from the taster. One could suggest that if one chooses not to cook the sauce then you could argue the sauce is cooked anyway when the pizza is cooked.

I simmer mine for a couple of hours being very careful not to let it boil.What does everyone else do and why?Randy

I haven't tried that on a Chicago but will for sure.Back to the Enclopdiapizza fellow, he says the more you cook tomatoes the less flavor. I was cooking sauce for spaghetti tonight and taste tested it for three hours. He is right. The first two hours on low the taste held up but at the end of the third, it fell off.

Although many recipes for sauce use the tomato sauce and paste combination I have found much better results with the peeled tomatos cooked and blended.

About the recipe you used, a couple of other ingredients which I use every time is a little diced onion and some basil. This will most certainly change the taste. But then again it is all personal preference.

One other thing, and I am sure most will agree that when using real garlic it pays to saute it briefly (about 2-3 min.)in some oil first. Saute the onions with the garlic if using them but saute them first as the garlic will become bitter after more than a few minutes. I hope this helps in some way.

One other thing, and I am sure most will agree that when using real garlic it pays to saute it briefly (about 2-3 min.)in some oil first. Saute the onions with the garlic if using them but saute them first as the garlic will become bitter after more than a few minutes. I hope this helps in some way.

I will have to disagree with garlic sautéing, crushed into the sauce works best for me.Randy

I have always sauted my garlic for the pizza sauce because I felt that it would help to release more flavor into the sauce, since I only simmer it for about 20 - 30 min. Longer simmering would almost make sauteing a moot point as the garlic would have more time to incoporate with the sauce.I had also heard about the aforementioned loss of taste in tomatoes if the sauce is overcooked, it is for this reason that I do not simmer for couple hours.But I will try not just puting them in chopped next time and see how much a difference it really makes. It would be nice to remove this step in the process if it is unecessary.

I usually put a couple of cloves in a piece of foil and add a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper(sometimes a bit of rosemary) and throw it on the stone as the oven gets to temperature. Throw the whole thing in the sauce, oil, herbs, mashed garlic and all. Real mellow in flavor, the oil picks up the garlic juices and doesnt take too long. Pizzaholic